18 August 2010

Prince Carlos Hugo, Duke of Parma, has died

Prince Carlos Hugo, Duke of Parma and Piacenza, died in a hospital in Barcelona, Spain in the early morning of 18 August 2010. The duke had issued a statement earlier this month informing that his health situation was critical.

Prince Carlos Hugo, to some a Carlist pretender, was born in Paris on 8 April 1930 as the eldest son of Prince Xavier and Madeleine Bourbon-Busset. Carlos Hugo married in Rome on 29 April 1964 Princess Irene of the Netherlands, a younger daughter of Queen Juliana and thus a younger sister of Queen Beatrix. The couple divorced in 1981.

Prince Carlos Hugo and Princess Irene had four children together - Prince Carlos, Prince of Piacenza; Prince Jaime, Count of Bardi; Princess Margarita, Countess of Colorno (Mrs. ten Cate) and Princess Carolina, Marquise of Sala - as well as 2 grandchildren.

The duke's body will be brought from Barcelona to the Hague to be lying in state in the Koepel van Fagel ("The Fagel Dome") in the park of Noordeinde Palace. Later the prince will be interred in the family crypt at the Sanctuary of Santa Maria della Steccata in Parma, Italy. A memorial service will take place in Madrid, but the date is yet to be announced.

The 40 years old Prince Carlos - who was referred to as Carlos Javier in the statement mentioned above - has succeeded his father as the new Duke of Parma and Piacenza. He married Annemarie Gualthérie van Weezel on 12 June 2010. The religious ceremony was scheduled to take place on 28 August 2010, but has now been postponed.

This blog is written by Dag T. Hoelseth, a Norwegian historian specialising in royal history.
I have a Cand.philol. degree in history from the University of Oslo and graduated in 1997 with the dissertation Det nasjonale kongedømme. Det norske monarkiet 1905-1910, which dealt with the royal election in Norway 1905 and how the new dynasty "became Norwegian".
I am the author of Historisk utredning om Kongehuset, dets apanasjer og disponible statseiendommer, which was published on behalf of the Palace Committee in 2001. The report focused among others on the history of the Norwegian civil list from 1905 to the 1970s as well as the properties the king of Norway has to his disposal.
I have made contributions to several antologies and also written articles for various publications. More often I have operated "behind the scene", consulting newspapers etc. with background information.
Among my other interests are genealogy, Norwegian-American emigration history, US presidential history, traveling, football and ice hockey.